An exploration of pizza in and around Rochester, NY, one pizzeria at a time

Friday, January 3, 2014

Friday Giveaway: TWO $25 Gift Cards for Empire Pizza

As promised, 2014 brings more reader giveaways, and here's another good one. Ken Fournier, owner of Empire Pizza on Empire Boulevard in Webster (or is it Penfield? whatever) has graciously agreed to give away two $25 gift cards to two lucky readers of this blog. Two cards, two chances to win!Empire Pizza specializes in New York style pizza, with a wide variety of slices available all day, every day. I stopped in today and was faced with the pleasant dilemma of trying to choose from among an array of red and white thin-crust pies and a couple of thick, crusty Sicilian pizzas. I finally settled on a meatball parm slice and a white slice with spinach and roasted red peppers. Both had a terrific crust, crackly but not crackerlike, with some spotty charring underneath. The toppings were fine, added in good proportion to the crust, and the slices were fresh.

I also chatted a bit with Ken. Like most good pizzeria owners, he's dedicated to his business - stop in nearly anytime, and as likely as not, you'll find him there - but he's also benefited from a stable, steady group of employees, who can handle anything from delivery to manning the ovens and making pies.
Ken also expressed a commitment to customer service. One example is giving the customer an accurate estimate of how long it will take to prepare an order. If it's 20 minutes, it'll be ready in 20 minutes. If it's a busy night and it's going to take longer, he'll let you know that too. And if you stop in for a slice, you can expect it to be fresh; stale slices (sadly, but understandably) are tossed out.The menu at Empire is solid but relatively basic, with ten specialty pizzas and 21 toppings to choose from. They also do baked wings, salads, calzones, and garlic twists, and there's a selection of cookies if your sweet tooth needs a fix. You'll find the entire menu here.
Why not find out for yourself how good Empire's pies are, with $25 to spend on anything you'd like? If you've entered these giveaways before, you know the routine. Just leave a comment following this blog post. Any comment will do. You don't have to leave your full name at this point, but anonymous comments will not be accepted, since I will need to be able to identify the winners. And if you do win, I will need your full name and mailing address. You can email me now at rochesternypizzaguy@gmail.com, or wait to see if you win. If you win, but I don't hear from you in a day or two, I'll pick another winner.
The winners will be selected at random one week from today, Friday, January 10. I'll pick the first winner shortly after noon, the second a little later. The winners will be announced here and on my Facebook page.
Whether you win or not, stop in to Empire Pizza sometime. Ken is an amiable guy who enjoys meeting people, and if he can spare a moment he'll be more than happy to talk with you. And if you do, please let him know that you read about his shop here on The Rochester NY Pizza Blog.

Ratings Guide

A: great; one of the best this area has to offerB: pretty good; not top-notch, but definitely good, and better than averageC: OK; nothing special, but it’ll do; typical for our areaD: edible; if you’ve already paid for it, you might as well eat itF: downright bad; toss it and get something else